Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State on Tuesday signed into law the 2016 budget estimate of N146,696,185,118 billion, showing a decrease of N N7,376,385,324 from what was initially presented to the State House of Assembly.
The sum of Seventy three billion, three hundred and seventy one million, seventy four thousand, nine hundred and sixty Naira (N73,371,074,960:00) is for Capital expenditure, while Seventy three billion, three hundred and twenty five million one hundred and ten thousand, one hundred and fifty-eight naira (N73,325,110,158:00) for recurrent expenditure.
After signing into law the budget, Lalong said, “The 2016 Budget is unique and nationally in tune with the zero-based budgeting principle, whereby total Revenue equals Total projected expenditure.
“This phenomenon is part of a closed loop spending management approach which strategically reverses and as much as possible eliminates the trend of large deficits on revenue.
“It therefore encourages critical review of every anticipated scheme that would lead to planned investment on development projects during the financial year.
“Let me assure our citizens that we would implement the Budget with due diligence and ensure that fiscal discipline and financial intelligence in line with global best practices are observed,” he stressed.
“We desire to multiply the impact of our interventions by strategically exploring and exploiting the wealth of resources and opportunities that we have in Agriculture, Mineral Resources and Tourism Sectors”.
The Governor said while the executive execute the budget in line with the stipulation of the law, he admonished the legislature to be alert to ensure the necessary checks and balances that behooves of it, as the second arm of Government.
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